


The Future We Fight For

by Tokyo_the_Glaive



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Family, Friendship, Future Fic, Minor Character Death, Multi, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-12
Updated: 2016-01-12
Packaged: 2018-05-13 12:38:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5708389
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tokyo_the_Glaive/pseuds/Tokyo_the_Glaive
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following the fall of the First Order, Rey doesn't know what to do with herself.  Finn's in a similar situation.  Poe has a suggestion.</p>
<p>(Or, the one where Poe takes Finn and Rey home with him.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Future We Fight For

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posted to tumblr. This came out of an anonymous request, but I ended up loving the entire idea. I might end up writing a series in this verse in addition to my canon verse, but we'll see.

It was a long time before anyone got any rest.  Destroying the Starkiller base was only the first step.  Once Rey returned from training with Luke-- _ Luke _ , the dear man, just one of many Rey could not longer think of without a pang of guilt and profound sadness--there was the tragedy of Naboo, followed by the loss of both General Organa and her brother.  Following that had been Kylo Ren’s breakdown-- _ my mother _ , Rey remembered Kylo snarling,  _ you killed my mother _ \--and the revelation of the being known as Snoke, then the battle for the citadel.  The Millennium Falcon had finally gone down.  Chewbacca had died there; so had Kylo.  When the  _ Finalizer _ and Snoke finally fell and the dust cleared, Rey had found that she didn’t know what to do.  The loss of General Organa had galvanized the Resistance and Rey to fight for what she and so many others had died for, but what next?

Neither Rey nor Finn had the answer.  There was nothing left for Rey on Jakku.  She knew now that the one she’d been waiting for all this time was dead.  No one would come back for her or give her direction.  She was supposed to be a Jedi, whatever that meant now.  It was arguably worse for Finn.  He’d defected and fought and won, but what was there for him?  Rey didn’t know, but she could sense Finn’s doubts, his fears.

Then there was Poe.

“It’s time to go home,” he said.  Rey wondered what that was like, having a home.  The remains of the Resistance had gathered at Coruscant.  Most everyone was in the process of packing up.  The remaining Generals had already drafted a new government with a Senate and all the rest.  There were still pockets of the First Order, though they weren’t nearly as pervasive, Rey gathered, as the tattered remains of the old Empire had been decades earlier.  The war was over.

“I guess this is it,” Rey said.  She smiled tightly.  She’d liked Poe.  “May the Force be with you.”

“You’re leaving already?”

Finn came rushing up to both of them.  He had a slight limp from his brief battle with Kylo Ren years ago, but other than that, he was unharmed.

“Yeah,” Poe said, “it’s time to go.”  Rey felt his sadness.  For all that they’d won the battle, it seemed that sadness was all they really felt.  They had all lost so much.

Finn swallowed.  “Well,” he said, “good luck to you, then.”

Poe bit his lip and looked down, then back up, eyes darting between Finn and Rey.  “I was going to ask,” he said, “if you wanted to come.”

* * *

In that way, Rey found herself aboard a ship headed for Yavin 4 with Finn and Poe.

“It’s got lots of trees,” Poe was telling Rey and Finn, “you’ll like it.”  Rey smiled.  She could feel Poe, so desperate to make her--them--feel comfortable.  Members of the Resistance had caught onto Rey’s fascination with greenery early.  She’d been given flowers and vines and grasses that she had diligently cared for throughout the past few years.  Before departing with Poe and Finn, she’d planted each one on Coruscant, where she hoped they would thrive with or without her care.  “Mountains, too,” Poe added.  “But it’s got the most beautiful sunrise of anywhere in the galaxy, let me tell you.”

Rey didn’t miss how Finn looked at Poe like he was that very sunrise, but she didn’t say anything.  There was no sense in getting involved in something that didn’t concern her.

* * *

They landed on Yavin 4 after about a day’s worth of travel.  Rey slept for most of it, or pretended to.  She could hear Poe and Finn whispering, tiptoeing around her.  She felt she’d made a mistake, coming with them.  She should have let them be.

Eventually, Finn came to shake her shoulder, and she pretended to be groggy with sleep.

“We’re here,” Finn said gently.

“Five more minutes,” Rey murmured.  It was an expression she’d picked up from the Resistance.  She’d never asked for five more of anything in her life, and she didn’t feel comfortable starting now.

Finn smiled at her, and Rey’s heart ached.  She couldn’t help but smile back.  “Come on, sleepyhead,” he said.  “Time to get up.”

Rey stretched and stood just as Poe rounded the corner to the bunks where Rey had rested for the duration of the journey.

“Ready?” Poe asked.  He gave Rey a smile, too, pushing his hair back out of his face.  He needed to get it cut, Rey thought distantly, or at least pushed back so that he could see.  It had gotten long in the months of fighting.

Rey nodded once.  She stuck her lightsabre in her belt, though she didn’t miss how Poe’s eyes lingered on it.

“Force of habit,” she said, feeling like she owed her temporary host an explanation.  Poe just shrugged, and together they disembarked.

* * *

The air on Yavin 4 was  _ clean _ , Rey thought.

“The old Rebellion, when the Galactic Empire was still around, had a base here,” Poe said as they walked. Rey’s eyes were drawn to the trees.  For all that her travels had exposed her to a wider range of climates and worlds than she’d ever thought possible, she was still endlessly fascinated by trees.  As promised, there were many, many mountains, too.  “My parents settled here after the Empire fell,” Poe continued.

“Were you born here?” Finn asked.

Poe made a noise.  “No, I was born on one of the old Rebellion bases,” he said.  “Much as I loved the Rebellion, though, this has always been home.”

Rey felt a tugging on her consciousness.  At first, she thought it was just Poe’s words--talking about home with that look in his eyes that told her that he was at peace for the first time in years--but it was something else.

“The Force is strong here,” she said softly.  Finn made a noise and looked about.  He was Force-sensitive, Rey had learned, but not intensely so.  She had tried to teach him, but Finn had wisely ducked out of training when he realized that he didn’t have a strong enough feel for it.

“I can almost sense it,” Finn said.  He smiled and looked at Rey.  “What does it feel like for you?”

“Joy,” Rey said automatically.  “It feels peaceful.”

Rey started when she noticed Poe was staring.  “Sorry,” she said, “it’s just--”

“No need to apologize,” Poe said, “it’s just, sometimes I forget.”

“Forget what?” Rey asked.

“That you’re a Jedi,” he admitted, “that both of you can feel the Force.”  Rey and Finn shared a look.  Neither knew what to say.  “Come on,” Poe said, gesturing, “we’re almost there.”

* * *

They walked for a little while longer before they came over a high hill that looked out onto a valley.  Rey squinted against the sun.

“There,” Poe said, pointing.

“Ah,” Finn said.  “I see it!”

“Poe,” Rey said, “it’s beautiful.”

Poe just smiled.  Neither Finn nor Rey could help but smile, too.

* * *

Poe led the way down into the valley with Rey and Finn trailing behind.  When they broke through the trees and into a little clearing, Rey and Finn slowed down even as Poe sped up.  He was running by the time he reached the house.

“Dad!” Poe called.  “Dad, I’m home!”

Rey and Finn stopped altogether as the door opened and a man stepped out.  Poe embraced him and together they rocked from side to side.  Rey could hear crying, and she wasn’t sure who it was coming from.

“What do you think it’s like?” Rey asked.  “Having that.”

“I don’t know,” Finn said.  Rey looked up at him, but he was staring at Poe.  Rey looked back down.  He still had that old bomber jacket, patched and repatched over years and many missions.

Poe called to them both, and slowly, they each came forward.

“My son,” Poe’s father was saying.  He couldn’t look away from Poe.  “You came home.”

“Of course I came home,” Poe said, all bluster, as if there couldn’t have been another way.  Rey and Finn knew the truth: the three of them had survived through wit and sheer determination.  They’d each saved each other countless times over.

“Dad, this is Finn, and this is Rey,” Poe said.  “This is my father, Kes.”

“How do you do,” Kes said, shaking hands with Rey and Finn in turn.  “Come inside, all of you.”

* * *

Kes hadn’t prepared enough food for four people--Poe hadn’t called ahead--so someone had to go hunting.  Rey had offered to go, but Poe had insisted that he knew the area the best, and Finn tagged along, leaving Rey with Kes.

“Sir Dameron,” Rey started, breaking a long silence.

Kes laughed.  “Just Kes, my dear,” he said.  “What can I do for you?”

Rey looked around.  “How long have you been here?” she asked.  It wasn’t the first question that had come to mind, but it was the only one she could bring herself to ask.  There was sadness in this place, mixed with the joy.  She hadn’t told Finn, but it was pervasive and thick and--

“Nearly since the end of the Empire,” Kes said.  “Shara and I set up here when we retired from the Rebellion.  Poe was little, then.”  He smiled softly.  Distantly, Rey could see echoes of Poe’s smile.  “Once the battle at Endor ended, we parted ways with war.  We’d hoped that we had seen the last of the great ones, and that our son would not know those horrors.”  His smile lessened.  “Had we known, we might not have left.”

“Then Poe wouldn’t have been raised here,” Rey said.  “This place is marvelous.”

Kes sat back.  He’d offered her tea, which Rey had accepted gratefully.  Rey had once scoffed at the idea of a hot beverage--tea on Jakku would have been absurd--but she’d come to appreciate it in its own right.

“This moon has a will of its own,” Kes said.  “Shara always said that it was the perfect place to raise our boy.”

“Shara?” Rey asked.

“Shara Bey,” Kes said.  “My wife.  She passed away many years ago.”  

Rey sat up straighter.  “I’m sorry,” she said.

Kes waved a hand.  “Don’t be,” he said.  “She died at peace.  She would have liked to have seen Poe grow, but some things just aren’t meant to be.”

A silence fell over the both of them.  Rey felt his sadness and understood: it wasn’t the Force that had leant its sorrow to the planet, it was Kes Dameron himself.  She wondered how long Shara had been dead for this much grief to build up.  At the same time, how wonderful it must have been, to have this much residual joy.

Kes said finally, with some struggle, “You are a Jedi, are you not?”

Rey tilted her head, then saw that Kes was eyeing her lightsabre.  She nodded and set it on the table.

“I haven’t seen one of those in many long years,” he said.  “I thought Skywalker was the last.”

“He was,” Rey said.  “He taught me the ways of the Force.”  She hesitated, thinking of Kylo and all of the conflict he’d carried with him.  “Now that the First Order is gone, I’m the only one with any training left.  Luke wanted me to find pupils, but…”

“You’re not sure, are you,” Kes finished.  Rey smiled sheepishly.  “Skywalker--Luke--he had the same fears.”

_ And look what happened _ , Rey thought, miserable and sick at the thought.

“Come on,” Kes said, standing.  “I’d like to show you something.”

* * *

Rey followed Kes through the house, trailing behind him.  He led her from the kitchen through a sitting area.  There were pictures everywhere, mostly of a lovely woman with a scar on her eyebrow and a smiling young boy--Shara and Poe, Rey guessed.  Kes must have taken them all.  Rey had grown familiar with pictures through the Resistance, though she didn’t have any of her own.  From there, Kes led Rey outside.  The grass was shorter back there, and there were rows of plants.

“They’re all vegetables.  I’ve always been fond of cooking,” Kes said, “and Shara and Poe were always good eaters.  I’ve been alone for a while, but old habits and all that.”  He led her past the vegetables and very nearly to the edge of the trees.

“Oh,” Rey said.  Her eyes alighted on it in an instant.

“A gift,” Kes said, “from Skywalker.”

Rey approached it.  It was an enormous tree, tall and strong.  It stood apart from the others, its branches waving only slightly.  It was covered in brilliant green leaves and bark that seemed to give off light.

“He said it was a Force-sensitive tree,” Kes continued.  “We grew it from a fragment that once stood in the Jedi Temple at Coruscant.”  Rey had heard of that Temple.  She’d promised Luke she’d rebuild it, make the Jedi strong again.  She’d promised many things.  “It didn’t grow for years,” Kes said, “decades, even.  Only a few years ago did it shoot up.”

_ There’s been an awakening in the Force _ , Rey thought.

“I see,” she said.  She ran her hands over the bark.

“Shara used to do that,” Kes blurted.  Rey could feel Kes physically start at his own admission.  He hadn’t intended to say so much.  After a moment, Kes added, “She used to talk to it.  She wasn’t a Jedi and neither was I, but she had this idea that if she talked to it, if she told it she loved it and gave it encouragement, it would grow big and strong.”

“And it has,” Rey murmured.  She ran her hand over the bark of the tree again.  “You’ve done so well.”  She turned to Kes, who looked back toward the house.

“Well,” he said, awkward and unsure, “looks like the boys are back.”

* * *

They ate game and vegetables and drank old wine that Kes had been saving.  Kes retired early, citing his age--”You’re not that old, Dad,” Poe called, but Kes just shook his head and went upstairs--and Rey, Finn, and Poe went outside.

“I told Finn earlier, but have you seen the tree?” Poe asked.

Rey nodded.  “It’s marvelous, isn’t it?”

“A tree that grows with the Force,” Finn said.  “What would have happened to it if we’d lost?”

Poe didn’t have an answer.  Rey thought she knew but said nothing.  They sat for some time in Kes’ vegetable patch, watching the sun go down.

“Does anyone else live here?” Finn asked eventually.

“On Yavin 4?” Poe asked.  “A few, mostly on the far side of the moon.  It’s a little out of the way for most.  People’ll come eventually, though.  There’s lots of space and the climate’s good.”

Rey stood.  “I ought to turn in,” she said.

Poe looked at her rather oddly, and Finn tugged at one of her sleeves.

“Really?” he asked.  “All powerful Jedi can’t stay awake?”

Rey laughed a little.  “Apparently not,” she said.  “You two take care.”

“Come on,” Poe said, “stay.  I didn’t invite you hear so you could hide.”

Rey wanted to ask why she had been invited, but both Poe and Finn were looking at her so earnestly, she couldn’t help but sit back down.  Finn looped an arm around her shoulders, and Poe leaned against her other side.

“It’s good to be home,” Poe said softly.  Rey closed her eyes and breathed--she could smell the grass and the trees, Poe’s hair and Finn’s skin.  Even if it was only for the moment, she felt at home, too.


End file.
